Information on Use

Access

Citation

When quoting material from
this collection, the preferred citation is: Ames, Van Meter. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Van Meter Ames was born on July 9, 1898 in De Soto, Iowa. He was the son of Mabel Van Meter Ames and Edward Scribner Ames (1870-1958), who taught in the Philosophy department at the University of Chicago and was pastor of the University Church of the Church of the Disciples of Christ and dean of the Disciples Divinity House. Van Meter Ames received his B.A. and Ph.D (1924) from the University of Chicago.

Ames joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati in 1925 and became chairman of the department of philosophy in 1959. Ames received a Rockefeller grant to study French philosophy in 1948, was named Fulbright research professor at Komazawa University in Tokyo, and was designated Humanist Fellow for Outstanding Contributions to Humanist Thought in Ethics and Aesthetics in 1976 by the American Humanist Association. He had interim appointments at Cornell University, the University of Texas, the University of Hawaii, Columbia University, and the University of Aix-Marseille where he was the first American faculty member. He retired in 1966.

Ames’ works include Aesthetics of the Novel (1928), Proust and Santayana: The Aesthetic Way of Life (1937), Zen and American Thought (1962), and To Find the Simple Things (1978).

Ames married Betty Breneman. Their children are Sanford Scribner Ames, Damaris Ames, and Christine Ames Cornish.

Van Meter Ames died on November 5, 1985.

Scope Note

The Van Meter Ames Papers consist of one box containing articles, manuscripts, paper abstracts, and other items related to Van Meter Ames from 1931 to 1985. The majority of these items are articles.

Related Resources

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections: